24h Le Mans today – Starting phase: Third Ferrari receives penalty, BMW falls back after accident

Changes in the lead, penalties and the first collisions: The 92nd edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans was turbulent as expected. After the first hour of racing, the #50 Ferrari 499 P (Fuoco, Molina, Nielsen) led the field of 62 racing cars. Ferrari works driver Nicklas Nielsen had started the race from third place on the grid and had already taken the lead from pole-setter Laurens Vanthoor in the #6 Penske Porsche (Estre, Lotterer, Laurens Vanthoor) on the first lap.

Penalties for Ferrari

However, the #50 Ferrari’s luck was not to last long: During the first pit stops after the 12th lap, things got tight on the exit between Nielsen and the #3 Cadillac of Sebastien Bourdais – too tight for the liking of the race management, who gave the #50 Ferrari a 10-second time penalty for the next pit stop due to an unsafe release.

This meant that the third Ferrari prototype also received a race penalty: the sister car with the starting number #51 (Pier Guidi, Giovinazzi, Calado) and the #83 customer Ferrari from AF Corse each had a 10-second penalty from qualifying (pit lane violation) brought into the race. The #51 with starting driver Antonio Giovinazzi served the penalty on the first visit to the pit lane and thus lost the second position it had fought for in the meantime.

Close field of pursuers in the Hypercar class

After the factory Ferraris briefly took a one-two lead, Laurens Vanthoor moved back into second place in the #6 Porsche, which leads the WEC overall standings. Third to sixth places were taken by the #51 Ferrari, the storming #8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid (Buemi, Hartley, Hirakawa), the #3 Cadillac of Sebastien Bourdais and the #35 Alpine (Charles Milesi).

Nicolas Lapierre, Alpine teammate of Le Mans debutant Mick Schumacher, was in eighth place in the #36 Alpine A424 after the first hour. The trio had started the race from ninth place on the grid, with the experienced Lapierre taking on the role of starting driver.

Setback for BMW and Porsche

The #15 BMW M Hybrid V8 (Dries Vanthoor, Marciello, Wittmann) had an annoying start: Two-time DTM champion Marco Wittmann lost control after 20 minutes in Tertre Rouge and hit the guard rails. The WRT team had to replace the front wing on the BMW, which caused it to fall back a lap. The #99 Proton Porsche also fell out of the lead lap after a technical problem occurred with the locking mechanism on the driver’s door.

In the LMGT3 class Pole setter #70 Inception-McLaren led ahead of #77 Proton-Ford Mustang. In the LMP2 classwhich returned to the WEC exclusively for Le Mans, led the #37 Cool Racing with Peugeot junior driver Malthe Jakobsen at the wheel.

24h Le Mans: Top 10 in the Hypercar class after 1 of 24 hours